It is one of the harsh realities of conducting business in 2014: data breaches or data loss are an increasingly common threat that are only becoming more expensive to recover from. Bad guys have an arsenal of sophisticated tools at their disposal that they can use to steal, hack, deface or otherwise ruin your business. IBM estimates that in 2014, the average cost of a business data breach is $3.5 million US – a 15% increase over the 2013 cost.

An industry like real estate is an especially juicy target since real estate professionals often have access to sensitive client information including banking, legal and personal contact information. If this information is unlawfully accessed it allows crooks to do things like steal identities, empty bank accounts and take over your computer.

So what is a savvy real estate professional like you to do to counter this very real threat? Two things:

1. Learn how protect your data
2. Implement "defensive layers" around your data

1) Learn to protect yourself

Knowledge is power and, when it comes to data security, this holds especially true. If you do not understand what you are dealing with, it will be hard to follow through in the next steps. A great first step is to see what manner of educational resources are offered to you through your broker or your board/MLS/association. Most will either offer courses or have experts on hand who can help you understand what the prevailing threats are.